Tech Time Warp of the Week: Watch Apple’s Awkwardly Wrong Prediction of the Future From 1987

Apple has a long history of weird, self-serving company videos that elevate its computer-and-gadget operation to nothing short of a global superpower. But this is something else.

In 1987, two years after founder Steve Jobs was run out of the company, Apple produced a video that predicted a phantasmagorically glorious future for the maker of the Macintosh. It may be the oddest, most brilliant, and horribly wrong prediction anyone has ever made. With the 7-minute clip, which you can enjoy above, CEO John Sculley, Apple II chief Del Yocam, Apple exec Mike Spindler, and that other cofounder—Steve “The Woz” Wozniak—envisioned what Apple would be like in the year 1997. And let’s just say they didn’t hit the bullseye.

In Cupertino’s vision of a future 1997, Apple dominates the news, the markets, even stand-up comedy. Wall Street loves the company, and its growth is skyrocketing. The original Macs haven’t changed all that much, and Apple computers are everywhere—in living rooms and kitchens, at the airport, on planes, in space, and, well, on your face.

Yes, history would play out somewhat differently than the Applemaniacs hoped it would. By the real 1997, Apple was in the gutter. Sculley had been kicked out of the company four years before, only to be replaced by Spindler, who would join him in the graveyard of ousted CEOs three years later.

In Cupertino’s vision of a future 1997, Apple dominates the news, the markets, even stand-up comedy.

Sure, Apple’s late-80s video was meant as a bit of a joke. But humor has never been the company’s strongpoint. Exhibit A: the video’s prediction that the Apple of 1997 would sell a version of its ancient Apple II desktop computer known as the V.S.O.P. Apparently, this stands for “Very Smooth Old Processor.” As Yokum puts it: “This being 1997, some people think the Apple II concept is getting old. We don’t agree.”

Other bits don’t miss the mark quite so badly. The video predicts something called VistaMac, which isn’t all that different from Google Glass, the digital eyewear that is now very much a reality. Of course, unlike the VistaMac, Google Glass doesn’t take floppy disks—and it doesn’t look so very late-80s.

The video also presages a few things we now take for granted, including recommendation systems and ubiquitous virtual assistants that help us navigate the world. “A computer that talks is no big deal. A computer that listens? That’s a breakthrough,” says Woz. “Apple computers have always been friendly, but we’ve gone from friendly to understanding.” Sounds a bit like Siri—though we hasten to add that even Siri doesn’t quite work as promised.

To be fair, Apple did have the last laugh. Though the company’s crazy predictions didn’t exactly come true, 1997 actually turned out be a very important year for the company. In 1997, Steve Jobs came back, as Apple purchased his new company, Next Computer. And he was smart enough to realize the V.S.O.P would never fly.